Amas d'etoile des Pleiades (M45)
Image Credit & Copyright:
Hermann von Eiff
Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster?
Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as dusty as this.
Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the
Pleiades
can be seen without binoculars even from the heart of a
light-polluted city.
With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the
Pleiades star
cluster becomes very evident.
The featured image was a long duration exposure taken last month
from Namibia and covers a
sky area many times the size of the full
moon.
Also known as the Seven Sisters and
M45,
the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull
(Taurus).
A common legend with a
modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six stars visible to the unaided eye.
The actual number of visible
Pleiades stars, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the
darkness of the surrounding sky and the
clarity of the observer's eyesight.